November 2014

November 30, 2014

I had no plans to subscribe to Netflix again after I gave it up some years ago until I saw the trailer of its latest original series ‘Marco Polo’ yesterday. In particular, this shot above of Marco Polo (1254-1324) and two others—I think they were his brothers or may be father and uncle--crawling in the court of Kublai Khan. First, it was the color of the floor tiles that grabbed me and then the three men on their knees approaching the Great Khan in ritual servility.

Apparently, the lowly status of the visitors to the Khan court was emphasized by making them crawl. And when the visitors left, they were expected to walk backwards, not showing their backs to Khan. Despite the crawling Khan considered Marco Polo a worthy man who went on to become one of his most important confidants.

Reading up a bit about Marco Polo’s travels this morning I came upon an interesting inscription on a golden tablet that Khan presented Polo. Do bear in mind that we are talking a time when a tablet was a tablet and not a 4G device and Polo was a traveler and not a shirt or a cologne. The inscription read: "By the strength of the eternal Heaven, holy be the Khan's name. Let him that pays him not reverence be killed." Revere me or die—a pretty minimalist expectation, wouldn’t you say?

Being the most famous Westerner to travel the Silk Road and a keen travel writer Polo has left behind accounts which form the core of this series. Everything about the story is cinematic, including the silk fineries that Khan and his courtiers were dressed in. It is commendable that Netflix, in keeping with its new business model of creating original content, gave the go-ahead to this series.

I have tried to reach out to Netflix suggesting several themes out of India but so far not received a response. As I await the release of ‘Marco Polo’ I binge-watched ‘House of Cards’, the terrific political drama that heralded Netflix’s emergence as an original content provider. I did not think it would be possible for me to binge-watch anything but I managed to finish the first four chapters of ‘House of Cards’ in almost one sitting.

November 29, 2014

If discommodiously intelligent aliens are indeed already among us, the likeliest candidate is Benedict Cumberbatch. In fact, he could well be their leader who has managed to infiltrate the human race via the most obvious route—as a movie star. I thought I was the one but then realized that I was sent to play the amiable fool who uses his anodyne personality to merge indistinguishably in life on this planet.

Of all the current crop of actors, none comes anywhere close to Cumberbatch when it comes to drilling deep into our psyche using his austere gaze. His performances as Alan Turing, Julian Assange and Sherlock Holmes all have that white light quality that takes considerable effort getting used to. Although of the three only Holmes is fictional, the other two could well fit that realm or, conversely, the “high-functioning sociopath” detective could well be real in the distant way that the other two are.

I am yet to watch Cumberbatch’s latest ‘The Imitation Game’ but going by the trailer there seems be that underlying theme to him. Being an accomplished actor Cumberbatch has managed to make all three characters distinct even though they all exude a measure of detachment from the hoi polloi that is not very pleasant. I have known characters like these in real life who require that you get used to them and not the other way around.

There is a clear aloofness to such characters even though there are moments in their lives when they do need ordinary human contact and interaction. They are naturally disruptive of the status quo without really trying to be so. Coming from a background in science generally and physics particularly I have long been aware of Turing and his extraordinary life. I found “Breaking the Code” (1996), the biography of Turing as portrayed by Derek Jacobi very engaging.

It would be a leap to make this claim but it is my general sense that English actors are particularly effective when it comes to portraying personalities that are brilliant in an impersonal, detached sort of way. That only partly explains why Cumberbatch excels at that. However, quite apart from that he is obviously an enormously talented performer. Things are going swimmingly for him at the moment. I am sure there would soon be an Oscar buzz about his performance as Turing which is being described in glowing terms.

I suppose part of Cumberbatch’s allure is that he is very English starting with his name. You get the sense that there is only one Cumberbatch and that is Benedict. It is a last name meant strictly and exclusively for him. Even his parents cannot use it. My name is Cumberbatch….Benedict Cumberbatch. If James Bond were an alien living among us, Cumberbatch would fit the role perfectly. Come to think of it, he would fit the role perfectly even if Bond were not an alien.

November 28, 2014

Black Friday is a day when hands and feet work a lot. But brain? Not so much, if any at all. Door busting hordes with their eyes glazed over by greed roam the streets in search of anything that resembles a deal and devour it with unseemly urgency. I have seen shredded remnants of deals hanging from shoppers’ mouths as they look for more through the ransacked aisles.

Deals hide behind the store display windows and under the tables in the vain hope that they would avoid getting brutalized a billion hands reaching out for them. It is a tragic day for deals soon after it is a tragic day for turkeys. Unlike deals, turkeys can at least run before they get harvested but not far because they are inside enclosures whose only exit leads them to the cone to drain their blood or the nearest tree to be strung up to and hung upside down before their neck is slit.

Incidentally, I am not one of those who believe that vegetarians are any less cruel than non-vegetarians. I do not see any difference between mounting a ripe tomato on a chopping board and slicing it and cutting through a roasted turkey. So no vegetarian sanctimony here.

The point of this post is not the vegetarian versus the non-vegetarian but the door buster versus the non-door buster. Far be it for me to judge those who stand in long lines outside giant retail stores in temperatures freezing their testicles to save some money. It is pitiable that we have created a whole ecology of fierce acquisitiveness where it takes corporations nothing more than a few deals to unleash the acquisitive monster. I have never stepped out on Black Friday or for that matter any day with the specific intention to grab a deal or two. That does not necessarily make me a better human being but merely one with no initiative, I suppose.

Zombies may or may not be real but the door busters are. They have a certain look in their eyes which tells you that the rest of the world has been expunged for the duration of the Black Friday sales. You stand in your way at your own peril. Those who engage in such shopping insist that there are genuinely great deals and bargains to be had. And I believe them. However, the sheer inelegance of standing in a line at 1.37 a.m. to buy something is beyond my comprehension. Human aesthetics collapse on a day like this. When shoppers are in that frenzy, you must leave them alone. The normal rule is non-shoppers should leave the door busters alone for several hours after they have returned home because it takes a while for the frenzy to subside.

One understands the allure of buying a 50-inch television set for $27 (literary exaggeration) which would normally go for $475. If it means spending four hours in a line for it, then so be it. The irony is that people watch new deals for next year’s Black Friday on the same TV before they set off again. It is a spell that is activated at a certain time of year. It is a dormant but annualized virus.

November 27, 2014

Jupiter is a wannabe star. Had it grown bigger it may have ignited enough and then who knows? It is said that if there were 1000 Jupiters fused together there could have been a rival star to the sun in our solar system. For now though we have to be content with one monstrous gas giant among us.

Purely as a comparison Jupiter is massive enough to envelop 1000 Earths. Its core, if it has any, would be the size of Earth. It is more massive than the rest of the planets in our solar system combined and then some more.

The scientific community is completely convinced that had it not been for Jupiter, there would not have been any us with all our ridiculous certitudes and stupid little squabbles. Jupiter has been described as a preserver and nurturer because of where it is in our solar system and the way it so magnificently acts as Earth’s protector.

At 778 million km (484 million miles) from the sun and its 67 moons Jupiter takes 12 earth years to complete one orbit around the sun. With no known surface, the gas giant’s clouds are an eternally swirling toxic mix of ammonia and other unknown chemicals. Storms just rage on with no landfall to make. Despite its monstrous size it rotates very fast—spinning once every ten hours. That fast spin churns up the toxic brew in its atmosphere to create what is easily the most strikingly beautiful mélange of shapes and colors in our solar system. It is paradoxical that the more toxic something is, the more bewitchingly beautiful it is.

It is said that once our sun has become a white dwarf some five billion years from now, Jupiter will still go on because of its internal furnace. It is just as well because Jupiter grabbed most of the material left over by the sun after its formation.

So please pay respect, people, and say By Jupiter. If you must thank something today, start with Jupiter.

November 26, 2014

The Casablanca piano and a scene from the movie featuring Humphrey Bogart and Dooley Wilson (Photos courtesy: Bonhams)

The iconic salmon-colored piano from the 1942 movie ‘Casablanca’ (picture above) was sold at an auction by Bonhams the other day for $3,413,000. After the 12 percent auctioneer’s commission it comes to $2.9 million.

When you consider that the whole film cost $878,000 to make and earned $3.7 million in its initial release, this is an extraordinary price.

This is the piano made memorable by Dooley Wilson’s ‘As Time Goes By’ and in which Rick (Humphrey Bogart) hides the famous transit papers. Incidentally, those transit papers were sold for $118,750. The exterior doors of Rick's Café Américain fetched $115,000.

The auctioneer did not identify the piano’s buyer.

It is just as well that the other day dear friend and fellow journalist Ashok Easwaran gave me a DVD of the movie which I intend watching for the 2 millionth time over the Thanksgiving weekend. I shall thank the makes of the film.

It is reasonable to say that no one on the movie’s set would have imagined that the piano would become such a Hollywood icon that 72 years after its release, it would be regarded as a highly collectible memorabilia and sold for $3,413,000.

For those interested, here is one of the most cherished scenes from the movie involving the piano.

Dooley Wilson and Humphrey Bogart and the famous piano in ‘Casablanca’

We now know what happens “as time goes by.” At least, objects become more coveted.

November 25, 2014

Bombay journalists of a certain vintage—I am one of them—all have a Murli Deora story. I do too.

Deora, a veteran mover and shaker behind the scenes in the Congress Party who died yesterday at 77, had the demeanor and body language of an eternal dealmaker. He exuded that sense that there is always a political deal to be had no matter how seemingly intractable the disagreement.

You could spot him in any social situation and feel that he was in the midst of resolving a particularly vexatious situation. He could do that because he was not a doctrinaire politician but a pragmatist, a quality that he perhaps carried over from his life as a businessman.

I knew Murlibhai reasonably well both in Bombay (it was that when I lived there) and then in Delhi. Given my reflexively shallow mind, I always noticed that in unguarded and sometimes even guarded moments, he had a delightful weakness for cussing under his breath. There was a particular cussword that slipped out of him almost as a punctuation. I am sure there are many politicians who curse but I knew of only Murlibhai who did it in a manner that sounded rather complimentary. In that he was like the Parsis of Bombay who curse with such refinement and affection.

Early on in my career, when I used to interact with him in Bombay as a young journalist, the conversations were mainly about local politics. He was the all influential president of Bombay Regional Congress Committee (BRCC), which although a city-based outfit of the ruling Congress Party, was perhaps the most powerful by virtue of being in the heart of the money world. For a long time Murlibhai was the most important fundraiser for the party.

He was a consummate political insider who, not being excruciatingly ideological, could reach out to any politician of any persuasion without any problem. Deora’s steadfast commitment to the Gandhi family, particularly to the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was legendary. He never showed it off but it was well known within the party that if anyone could enter the rarefied circle at will, it was him.

If there is one line that could sum up Deora—it is not my case that he necessarily used it—it would be “To problem kya hai usme? (So what’s the problem there?)” He could have started a business called ‘Problem-solvers-R-Us’.

Murlibhai was not a schmoozer in the sense that is understood here in America but he had the knack to chat up anyone across a wide spectrum of interests. He had this habit of appearing to switch off in the middle of a conversation but that could be misleading because he was invariably paying attention.

My Deora story is trivial but still indicative of how he always reached out. It was sometime in 1984 or 1985. Getting a home telephone line in the India of the 1980s was a privilege/nightmare of indescribable proportions. Naturally, I did not have one at home for quite sometime. In one of my meetings, Murlibhai found out and asked me straight up, “Tere ko ghar pe phone chahiye?” (Do you want a phone at home?)” I said yes in the general sense and not in the spirit that he had meant.

In his mind the moment I said yes, he would call the boss of the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), the state-owned phone corporation right there and a line would be installed in the next few hours. Being an idealist I told him I could not possibly accept that favor. He understood where I was coming from and did not persist even though he was amused by my refusal.

On another occasion, he found out that I stayed in a rented apartment. His inevitable question was “Tere ko flat chahiye? (Do you want a flat/apartment?)” What he meant was he could get me one sanctioned from the special journalist quota that the Maharashtra state government had set aside for the media at a highly subsidized rate. I declined, of course, much to his amusement again.

In both cases, one could tell that Murlibhai was not even remotely trying to influence a young journalist. He did not need me in anyway or for that matter any other local journalist to function as a politician of consequence. He was already one. By the time I met him, he was a veteran politician, having been the mayor of Bombay in 1977-78.

Deora was urbane even though some of his manners were not fully varnished. I always thought if there was ever a genuinely serious Indian political movie, a character like Murlibhai would make an extremely compelling character. He was old school in the sense that he believed politics was the art of the possible.

November 24, 2014

Theater is theater and movies are movies and the twain shall never meet.

Well, not quite. Not only do they meet but they meet rather well, thanks to CinePlay which could well be a new genre of online and cinema hall-based entertainment.

Well-known actress Nandita Das and her businessman husband Subodh Maskara are busy perfecting this new genre of entertainment that draws on the best elements of filmmaking and theatre.

CinePlay offers the intimacy of staged plays and gloss of the movies. Although filmed plays have been around, CinePlay differs significantly in that its productions are plays shot over several days as if they were films. The sets remain what they typically are in a theater production but they become part of the filming with lighting, sound design and camera movements like a regular movie.

The couple is currently showing their latest play “Between the Lines” directed by Ritesh Menon in some American cities. This particular play has been written by Das and Divya Jagdale and runs 79 minutes, which is slightly shorter than the average duration of about 90 minutes for a typical Hollywood movie.

“CinePlay allows stories from theatre to break the constraints of economics, geography, language and accessibility. It archives iconic plays, allowing future generations to experience unforgettable stories and performances. Current economic constraints have challenged the theatre community. CinePlay extends the influence and reach of theatre by creating a self-sustaining financial model,” explains Maskara, who is also CinePlay’s founder and CEO, on the company’s website.

During a news conference in Chicago yesterday both Das and Maskara explained that at a time when economics trumps art in Hindi cinema, what they are offering restores some of the lost glory of high quality story-telling. Das agreed that the new genre opens up access to a rich resource of world-class plays which are otherwise restricted by geographical limitations.

A scene from CinePlay’s ‘The Job’

Since CinePlay productions are digital in nature their portability increases dramatically and offer both classic and new plays access to global audiences that was unthinkable until recently.

Maskara pointed out the cost efficiencies in filming an enactment. Asked how much an average CinePlay production might cost, he said between $40,000 and $50,000, which is significantly less than even the budget of shooting a single song sequence in a mainline Hindi movie production.

“I am excited about it as an artist because of the richness of the material we can film,” Das told me. Her CinePlay showing here is a story about a lawyer couple Maya and Shekhar who by a quirk of fate end up arguing on the opposing sides in a criminal trial. Although Maskara is not a trained actor, he said he drew a great deal from Das, a veteran of 40 feature films.

As a form of entertainment CinePlay affords performers many of the spontaneous features of doing staged plays even while allowing the benefits of retakes. Unlike the filmed plays, where a play unfolding as is in front of a live audience is filmed with several cameras, this version is shot over a few days, typically between four and five days. What it lacks in scale and grandness of a regular feature film, it makes up with a sense of proximity, high quality story-telling and rich variety of themes.

The main reason why CinePlay productions retain the stage set feel is because they indeed are. Although they are shot inside a movie studio with professional quality lighting, even some measure of tracking shot and close-ups, Maskara and Das said they take enough care to make them still look like actual plays.

I personally feel that this could emerge as a new form of entertainment at a time when non-movie industry players such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu are engaged in creating their own proprietary content. So far these names have not gotten around to tapping the huge Indian Diaspora market of over 25 million across the world. Outside of the usual Hindi movie staple that is served to the Diaspora market, offerings such as CinePlay via channels such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu could transform the entertainment media scene.

One big advantage of the filmed version of plays the way CinePlay does it is that it dramatically expands its resource base. There is a rich reservoir of highly engaging plays available throughout India which lend themselves to a filmed version that would normally not be accessible to audiences outside of the handful of Indian cities they are staged in. However with CinePlay, which is also a result of extraordinary advances in digital technology and spread of broadband, they can reach across the world.

Das said one of the primary reasons why she chose to write the particular play was that there is not enough material on the challenges of middle-class urban couples and families. “Between the Lines” examines how lives of a young couple get affected by their professional choices.

Das has been in the United States for the past three months as a World Fellow at the Yale University. She has had the opportunity to offer her perspectives on many issues related to women’s rights and human rights at Yale, Harvard and elsewhere.

“Between the Lines” was shown at New York’s prestigious Museum of Moving Image. The museum “advances the understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media by presenting exhibitions, education programs, significant moving-image works, and interpretive programs, and collecting and preserving moving-image related artifacts.”

Annually, the museum shows some 400 films.

The screenings in Chicago area came courtesy of India Development Service (IDS), a non-profit involved in social and economic development in India, Vachikam, which promotes Indian performing arts in America and Canada, and the Chicago South Asian Art Council, which organizes an annual film festival.

November 23, 2014

I have revived my plan to write a novel about Bimbisara, the first great king of the ancient Indian empire of Magadha. I have written bits and pieces over the years but exigencies of survival constantly distract one from doing what one likes.

The following are what I call teaser excerpts from what I hope would become a full-fledged novel some day soon. I am republishing what I wrote over a year ago if only to goad me into writing more.

The details of the cruelty depicted here have been taken from various sources. In any case, this is a piece of fiction.

Date: 493 BCE

Place: Rajgriha, the capital of the ancient Indian kingdom of Magadha

Location: Inside a dungeon like prison cell, kept heated for the discomfort of its single illustrious inmate, Bimbisara, the first important king of Magadha, now a starving captive of his own son Ajatashatru.

Khema, Bimbisara’s wife and Ajatashatru’s mother, enters the dungeon looking particularly anxious. Her body is glistening with the golden hue of honey. It is not sweat. It is honey.

Khema’s efforts to smuggle in food for her diminished husband have been discovered by Ajatashatru and his guards. The only way she could carry some sustenance for him without being discovered was by smearing her own body with honey.

Bimbisara is emaciated and haggard. His face is pallid and smile wan. Not bothering with the pleasantries, Bimbisara starts feverishly licking Khema’s body—the arms, the face, the legs, the midriff. Khema stands there as he devours every drop of honey for he has been starved by his son for weeks now as part of a viciously ritualistic parricide. This is his only and last meal before his life turns even more cruel.

The body now having been infused with some natural sugar, Bimbisara seems to have regained a semblance of his fabled luster. His name Bimbisara, after all, means “of a golden color.” He also strikes what he thinks is a stately pose.

Khema wipes Bimbisara’s face and says:

Khema: I feel utterly drained although you are the one starving. I think I have run out of options to bring in food.

Bimbisara: As the Buddha said suffering is part of the human condition. I am suffering because I have attachment. I am attached to life. I am attached to you. I am attached to Ajatashatru.

Khema wells up at the mention of their son

Khema: I often think of what the royal astrologer had said about Ajatashatru’s birth. He had called it portentous for you. He had said he would rise as his father’s nemesis. I do think of that frequently.

Bimbisara: The Buddha also said ‘Yatha bhutam’. That’s the way it is. I do not spend a lot of time thinking about my plight. What appears to be a crisis from outside has so many exits within. I walk and meditate and that keeps me alive.

Khema: Seeing you alive enrages Ajatashatru. Everyday you are alive is like death in pieces for him. I don’t know what we did, what you did, to deserve such cruelty. You gave up the kingdom for him. You gave up everything for him….

Bimbisara: I have you, Khema. I have you going to great lengths to keep me alive. I have you smuggle in food for me. I have you dripping with honey to keep me alive. Asking for anything more and anyone more noble is greedy.

Khema goes close to Bimbisara and whispers:

Khema: Ajatashatru has summoned barbers. I am told they will be sent to here soon.

Bimbisara’s face lights up. He thinks his son has had a change of heart. The summoning of barbers means only one thing. He is being groomed for the life of a monk, something he had been seeking to do all along.He could not be more wrong.

The barbers have been instructed to slice open the soles of his feet, administer salt and vinegar in the wounds and then burn the wounds with coal.

As Khema leaves the dungeon with a sense of foreboding that this may well be the last time she would see him alive, Bimbisara begins his walking-meditation with a distinct hint of a smile at what is to come, unaware that what is to come is unspeakably heinous. Or may be he is fully aware.

November 22, 2014

Vincent Van Gogh’s blues and yellows are never far from my mind. To me those are the default tones of Van Gogh’s visual mind. It is amazing how well they work together. This morning his blues and yellows were hovering on my mind’s horizon and I had no option but to do something about it. The three paintings above are a result of that. Here is to Vincent Van Gogh for no apparent reason.

November 21, 2014

In Jerry Seinfeld’s conception the world is divided in two—one populated by comedians, which is his world, and the other populated by “regular” people about which he makes his jokes. It seems like a world he can barely tolerate. Had it not been for the hundreds of millions that that world has made him he might not have tolerated it at all.

He forgets that it is that world full of “regular” people which he needs both as source material as well as an audience. He couldn’t possibly sustain his career as a comedian by depending on other comedians to fill up the venues where he performs. In any case, other comedians have what they think is their own angst and self-absorption to deal with. They may not sit through the act and pay for it too.

These thoughts came to mind while watching the new season of Seinfeld’s hit web series ‘Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee’ where comedians in cars, one of whom is necessarily Seinfeld, get coffee and talk. I remain annoyed at its mounting smugness but continue to watch every single episode.

The one in which Seinfeld shows his barely concealed wariness for “regular” people, the hoi polloi if you will, the swinish multitude if you insist, also features Amy Schumer.

The following exchange between Seinfeld and Schumer tells you a lot of what the former is:

Seinfeld: Already as a comedian the world has a transparent quality to you. You see through everything. That’s why you spend all your time trying to cogitate.

Here is my secret trick for talking with people.

Numbers. Ask them questions to which the answer is a number.

Schumer: Why numbers, though?

Seinfeld: There’s always an answer. This is Seinfeld's secret technique for talking to regular people….

How long have you lived here? What time do you start work?

On July 14, 2014 I wrote this about the series, specifically about the episode featuring Jon Stewart.

“I am almost annoyed that I regularly watch Jerry Seinfeld’s increasingly smug net-only series ‘Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee’. To the extent that any performance art demands a measure of self-absorption, the core of this series makes sense. However, one finds that Seinfeld elevates the tribe of comedians to a level which they do not necessarily deserve. He sees charming quirks in almost everything that comedians do even when they don’t exist. It is as if he falls in love with his craft and those who practice it with manifest success over and over again. He presumes a uniqueness to his profession that no other can come anywhere close to.”

That overall approach continues with the new season. Not that I was expecting it to change because that is the default nature of Seinfeld’s world. Check out the two shots I have taken out of his latest episode featuring Bill Burr. The two are at a cigar bar in Hollywood.

Seinfeld and Bill Burr (I paused the video to capture these two shots)

The shot directly above of Seinfeld puffing away and thick, white, almost vapor-like smoke, floating around him like clouds wanting to envelop him sums up the kind of life he now leads.

Watching ‘Comedians..’ is not mandatory. No one has coerced me into watching it. I do it because I watch and read a lot of things to just keep up. I am not emotionally invested in anything I do by way of media consumption. My annoyance is a performance whipped up for the purposes of writing something, anything.